Did You Know Carrie Underwood’s ‘Before He Cheats’ Video Featured a Real Drunk Guy?

Carrie Underwood changed her image quite a bit when she released her video for "Before He Cheats," in which she portrays a woman scorned taking revenge on a cheating boyfriend. But all is not as it appears in the famous clip.

VH-1's old Pop-Up Videos series devoted a segment to Underwood's "Before He Cheats" video, uncovering some of the behind-the-scenes stories from the shoot. One of the most interesting bits involves a drunk who stumbles out in front of Underwood as she walks along and sings the vengeful lyrics. In the video, she simply shoves him out of her way, giving him a sidelong glare that's perfectly in keeping with the tone of the song.

As it turns out, that man was not an actor; he was a real-life drunk guy who stumbled into the star's path as she was walking down a crowded sidewalk singing on camera, and she was forced to move him out of her way as quickly as possible.

That's just one of the stories Taste of Country reveals in our Secret History of Country Music episode devoted to Underwood's career-altering song, which marked the first time she had departed from her sweet and innocent image to portray a darker side. The song was written with Gretchen Wilson in mind, and Underwood very nearly passed on it, fearing it would cause fans to turn on her.

Instead, the song reached No. 1 on the country charts and became a huge crossover hit in other genres, and Underwood would gon on to win Grammy, CMA and ACM Awards for the song and video. She would continue on with a string of songs that would find Underwood wreaking vengeance on various men for all manner of reasons, though she didn't kill anyone on her most recent album, Cry Pretty.

The Secret History of Country Music is a new weekly series hosted by Taste of Country News host Ania Hammar. We'll take you inside the stories of country music's biggest hits, moments and people. Garth Brooks is the subject of one episode, and Luke Bryan has also been featured. Be sure to subscribe to Taste of Country's YouTube channel so you never miss a new episode: